Saturday, October 17, 2009

Saturday Morning 1966- Space Ghost.

Don't let that talk show fool you, there was a time when Space Ghost was a bad-ass played straight super hero.

Out of all the Hanna-Barbera created super heroes to hit Saturday Morning in the 1960's, Space Ghost is, in my opinion, the cream of the crop. Oh, sure, Bird Man is cool (although he loses his solar-driven superpowers every time he steps indoors or a cloud goes by) and the Galaxy Trio rock in a ripping off the Fantastic Four kinda way. And Mightor and the Herculoids are pretty smashing in a vaguely homo-erotic, caveman, Frazetta- barbarian sort of way. But Space Ghost has it all.

Space Ghost has a cool costume (he was designed by the inimitable Alex Toth),not one, but two, count 'em two kid sidekicks,a boss space ship,his own planet as a secret base and-and this is the coolest part- a freakin' monkey!

His super powers include invisibility (I'm assuming that's where the "ghost" part comes in) and a ray for every occasion, fired from his wrist-mounted power bands. Heck, Space Ghost has been know to take out whole species and entire planets just to wrap up an episode.

He also has an impressive cast of recurring villains, Zorak, Moltar, Brak, Creature King, Web Woman (sometimes Spider Woman), Metallus, Lurker... There's even a storyline where all his villains team up and form the "Council of Doom" to get even with him.You can still get the entire series on Amazon.com pretty cheap, so treat yourself.

You just can't beat a hero so cool that his emblem is a picture of himself.

The 1981 revival (Space Stars) was bound by restrictions thanks to anti-violence statutes put into place after some soccer mom whined in the 60's. It's not stinky.

The talk show, on the other hand, jumped the shark moons ago. Adult Swim's idiots showed no respect to the heroes of the 60's by recasting Birdman as a lawyer and Mightor as a judge. These are things that old school fans cannot accept!

While I am well aware of the limitations placed on Saturday morning cartoons of the 1970's and 80's, I still contend Space Stars was stinky, IMO. Even allowing for the necessary lack of violent content, the design and animation was sub-par. The 80's Phantom Cruiser is hideous. I will say, however, that I watched it religiously at the time. I was 9.

You should realize that Space Ghosts ship The Phantom Cruiser also call what one might call a Cloaking Device like from Star Trek only it was called Inviso Power and his enemies always seem to servive bot notice has Paraidor looked like The Lurker as well Zorak being a big praying mantis would have eaten Locar the grasshoppper guy

Why The Silver Age?

I grew up in the late 70's and early 80's, right as superhero comics were going from a floundering social rant about human rights to a newly reinvented vision of your favorite heroes as masked psychopaths. Fortunately for me, my local library had a copy of "Batman from the 30's to the 70's" which I checked out and read regularly. I was hooked. I was filled with what Alan Moore would later call a "sense of wonder" at the elaborate interior of the Batcave. The supporting cast with room for a Batgirl, Batwoman, Bathound and Bat-Mite. Oh, sure, I joined the 1985 bandwagon of "Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen" style grittiness... but after a few years of that stuff, I began to miss, sincerely, characters like Streaky the Super-cat and Mr. Mxyzptlk. In a few more years, I began to really miss Aquaman's shirt (oh, and his hand). No, for me, superheroes will always exist in a shimmering land written before 1967.

Oh! And the images, indicia, titles, names. etc. of any comics or cartoon properties are copyright their respective owners.